Have You Ever?

I stared at the moving vans next door. The family that was moving next door got out and a boy, that looked about my age or a year older, opened the back door to the vans.
“ Are the neighbors here yet?” My older sister Charlye said. She nosily looked out of the window.
“Yeah, they’re unpacking right now.”
“ Think we should go over?”
“ They just got there. I don’t think they want to bombarded by neighbors right this second.”
“ Yeah, your right.”
We sat and watched them. The door opened up and out stepped two more boys. One looked my age and one looked a little older.
“ Okay, I’m going over there.” Charlye said, getting up and smoothing out her shirt.
“ What are you going to tell them?’ I knew she was going over there for the boys. She was a senior in high school and absolutely boy crazy.
“ I’m going to invite them to the homecoming party today.”
She looked at her self one more time in the mirror. I had to admit my sister was beautiful. Her hair was light brown and fell into perfect curls, while mines was a black and was pin straight. Her eyes we big and brown, while mine were big and green. The only thing we had in common was a our last name. Other than that, you could barely tell we were sisters.
“ Crystina, come with me.” Charlye asked.
“ Why?”
“ Because if I go alone it will look like I was trying to hit on the boys.”
I stared at her.
“ But isn’t that why your going over there?”
“ Yeah, but I don’t want them to know that.”
She gave me a smiled that I returned. I got up and then looked at myself in the mirror. I’m not saying that I’m ugly, because I know I’m not, but I’m not super gorgeous either. I have a nice body that I take care of. I have nice eyes…I’m pretty. I looked at what I was wearing: A t-shirt that had all different types of writing on it, jeans, and my Nike’s. I looked good for meeting boys, especially new ones.
“ Ready to go, or are you gonna keep staring at yourself?”
“ I’m good.”
We walked out the door to meet the new family. When I got closer to them, I could see that the mom was bouncing a little baby boy on her shoulders while telling one of her sons what to do. She spotted us first.
“ Hello, may I help you?” The baby she was holding looked at us with curiosity, his hazel eyes were alert.
“ Hi, I’m Crystina and this is my sister Charlye. We live next door and were just wondering if you needed any help.” I told her.
“ Oh, well…” She looked around, “ Um, you can watch Noah, if you really want to help.”
The baby looked at us and smiled. He was cute, very small and chubby.
“ Um, thanks,” Charlye started,” But that’s not the kind of work we were looking for exactly…”
“ I’ll watch him.” I volunteered. Charlye looked at me like I was crazy. She absolutely hated to watch babies. She tried babysitting to earn extra money and came home crying once. She complained that all the baby did was cry.
The mother looked at me.
“ Are you sure?”
“ Yeah, it’ll be no problem.”
I walked up to the mother and slowly grabbed the baby. It cooed at me and smiled a big grin. I laughed.
“ Your just a little heart breaker, aren’t you?” His mom smiled.
“ You can watch him inside. He needs a bottle. The stuff to make him one is in his baby bag. If you need any help, you could ask one of the boys, they will be in and out of the house.”
Charlye’s mouth dropped when she heard that I was going to be in the house with the boys. I smiled.
“ Thanks, I’ll take care of Noah.”
I started walking toward the open front door with the little baby in my arms. I came to the door and was hit with a strong breeze.
“ Gah.” The baby cooed. He shook his little hand toward the breeze.
“ Where’s the wind coming from, Noah? Huh?”
The baby just looked at me and smiled. This could be easy. If all the baby did was smile then I would be good.
I followed the breeze. I got to the end of a hallway and found out that it was an open window. I shut it and turned around to see a boy looking at me.
His face was inches from mine. His hair was a dark brown and his eyes were almost black. He wore a wife beater with baggy jean shorts. His skin was a medium dark brown, and it glistened from sweat. He saw that I was shocked and smiled.
“ So you’re the girl from next door, huh?”
He backed away from me a little and picked up Noah.
“ Yeah. Your mom said I could watch Noah.”
“ Really? For all that she could of just told me to watch him.”
“ I’m sure she needs your muscle to move the furniture. Me and Noah were just fine.”
I was sorta mad that he scared me like that and took Noah away. He was sorta cute thought.
“ What’s your name?” He asked.
“ Why should you know?”
“ Because your watching my little brother.”
“ Crystina Maine, you?”
He put Noah back into my arms.
“ Daniel Lopez.”
He sat back down on the edge of the steps.
“ So, do you know anything good to do around here?”
“ Well, tomorrow night me and my sister are gonna have a homecoming party.”
“ A homecoming party? Don’t you guys have a dance or something?”
“ No. Instead the senior class picks a student to throw the party. They picked my sister this year.”
He looked at me. I could tell he was bored.
“ Well, I’ll see if I can stop by.” I cocked my hip and looked at him.
“ What do you mean ‘ You’ll see’ ?”
“ If it’s a good party then I’ll hear about it.”
“ Your new. How would you hear about it?”
He got up and stretched..
“ Trust me. If it’s good, word will get around.”
He turned and walked away.
“ Your brother’s crazy, Noah.”
“ Gah.”
I took that as an agreement and walked into the kitchen. It was nice. It had granite counter tops, one of those new ovens, and a little island in the center. On the island was a baby bag that had pictures of Noah’s Ark on it.
“ Aw, Noah. Your baby bag is so cute.”
He looked at me with his big hazel eyes. I bottom lip started to tremble and his face started to scrunch up. His mouth opened and then he begin to cry.
“ It’s okay, Noah. I’m a make you a bottle right now, alright? Don’t cry.”
…
He cried louder.
I dug through the baby bag and got out the similac and the bottle. I tried to rock Noah as I went over to the stove, but it didn’t work.
“ It helps if you pat him on the butt.”
I turned around and saw a boy, he looked like the first one, but different. His eyes were big and hazel, just like Noah’s. His skin was lighter than Daniel’s, and he wasn’t as built. His hair was brown and shaggy, like a skater boy’s.
“ Here. Give me him.”
I handed Noah over without complaining. It was something about his voice. I mean, he looked young, but his voice was so mature. He made a cradle with his arms and began to rock Noah. He patted his butt while swaying him back and forth. Noah didn’t stop crying completely, but his loud cries started to reduce to little sniffles and little whines.
“ You better start making his bottle or he will start all over again.”
“ Right.” I said turning around.
I started working on making the bottle, trying to ignore the boy that was behind me. While the milk was cooking, I would glance at him from the side of my eye. His eye were never on me (not that I expected them to be) they were always on Noah. I shut of the stove and put the milk into the bottle. I tested it on my arm and turned to the boy.
“ Do you want to feed him or do you want me to do it?” I asked.
Noah noticed the bottle in my hand and started crying again.
“ It doesn’t really matter. You could do it I guess.”
He handed me Noah. I stuck the bottle in his mouth gently. He immediately became silent and started sucking on the bottle. His eyes looked at me softly. I smiled at him.
“ He is so cute.” I said to no one in particular.
“ Yeah, I guess.”
I looked at Noah’s brother.
“ What’s your name?”
“ Christian Lopez.”
“ Oh. I’m Crystina.”
‘ I know. Daniel told me.”
I looked at him curiously.
“ What else did he say?” Christian shrugged and shifted his weight to the other foot.
“ Nothing much. He said you were scared of him or something.”
“ Douche bag.” I murmured under my breath.
‘ Yeah,” Christian said, “He’s like that to most girls.”
Christian turned to walk away. I examined him carefully. He walked so confidently. Like he was the best thing in the world, but not in a cocky way.
“ Hey, Christian?” He turned around and looked at me.
“ Yeah?”
“ Me and my sister are throwing a homecoming party tomorrow night. You could come if you want.”
He smiled at me.
“ Sure. I’ll see if I could make it.” Then he turned back around and walked out the house.
I smiled at Noah.
“ Well, at least we know you have one nice brother, huh, Noah?” Noah smiled at me, causing milk to spill out of his little mouth. I went to his baby bag, got a cloth, and wiped his mouth.
“ I think it’s time to burp you.”
I laid the cloth across my shoulder and laid Noah across it. I began to pat his back. I walked over to the couch in there living room and sat down. I could already tell that the living room was going to look nice, even though it wasn’t completely moved in yet. They had a red, white, and black color scheme going on. The couch was red and the walls and floor were white.
“ Do you like it?”
I turned to see a boy sitting next to me on the couch. He looked like his brothers but he had a skin color mixed between the both of them. Not dark like Daniel’s and not light like Christian’s. He grinned at me. His eyes were a deep green, and I could see hints of brown in them. His hair was black and spiky.
“ Your living room? Yeah.”
“ Yeah, I chose the colors.” He looked at me and Noah. “ You know if you keep patting him on his back, he’s going to fall asleep.”
I looked at Noah, who was already dazing in and out of consciousness. He smiled sheepishly at me and closed his eyes.
“ You and your brothers know a lot about Noah.”
“ So, you met Daniel and Christian already?”
“ Yeah. They both had something to say about Noah.”
“ Yeah. After my dad died, Noah became sorta the last thing we had left of him. That and the other baby my mom’s carrying.”
I looked at him with a shocked expression on my face.
“ Your mom is pregnant?”
“ Yeah, you could barely tell though. We just found out a few weeks after he died.”
“ Oh.”
“ Yeah,” He sighed and threw his head back, “ Mom’s hoping it’s a girl. That’s why she keeps having so many kids.”
“ Oh.” I said. I felt stupid for not having anything else to say. “ What’s your name?
“ Um, My name is Taylor.”
“ Taylor?” I asked.
“ Yeah, but you can call me TJ.”
“ Why TJ?”
“ Because my middle name is James. My dad gave me the nickname.”
“ Oh.”
He stood up and sighed.
“ Well, it was nice to meet you…?”
“ Crystina.”
“ Oh. Well, nice to meet you Crystina. I’ll see you around.”
“ Hey, TJ, before you go, me and my sister are throwing a homecoming party tomorrow night. You should see if you could stop by.”
He looked at me and smiled.
“ I’ll stop by.”
XXX
When I got home, Charlye was waiting for me. As soon as I got in the door she bombarded me with questions.
“ So which brother was the cutest?”
I flopped down on my queen sized bed and looked at her. Her brown eyes looked into mine excitedly as she flopped down next to me waiting for her questions to be answered.
“ I don’t know, they we’re all pretty hot.”
“ Okay,” She said with a smile on her face, “ So what type of boys are they?”
I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to remember every detail of the boys I saw earlier. I opened my eyes and began to speak.
“ Daniel is very…rough. Like, he had an attitude, but he could care less at the same time.”
“ How old was he?”
“ No too much older than me.”
“ Alright. I like the bad boys.”
She smirked at me. I smiled back and continued.
“ The next one I met was Christian. He was more quiet, but the way he walked was full of confidence.”
“ So he was cocky?”
“ No, he walked like he knew who he was and didn’t care if you liked him or not. Like I said… he was confident.”
“ Okay,” She said, with a smile still on her face, “ What about the last one?”
“ The last one is Taylor, but he likes to be called TJ.”
“ Why TJ?”
“ Because his middle name is James, and his dad always used to call him TJ.”
“ Oh.”
“ He was the one that talked to me the most. He was real careless.”
Charlye smiled. I could see her going through each boy in her head. That’s what she did when she meet boys. She thought about them and what type of girl they liked, so she could become that girl. Suddenly, her expression turned from a pretty smile into a frown.
“ Wait, you did invite them to the party tomorrow night, didn’t you?”
“ Yeah, they said they would come.” I said, leaving out Daniel. Charlye wouldn’t notice if he didn’t come anyway, she would have the other too to occupy her.
She got up off my bed and smiled again.
“ I need to find something to wear!” She screamed as she dashed out of my room. I laughed. Tomorrow was going to be interesting…